In a long commentary on Kadyrov’s offensive against government opponents in Russia, Ludmila Ulitskaya told RFE/RL there is “a thin line” separating the present moment, “when repressions are sporadic,” from the time “when they will be massive.” (In Russian)

Speaking on a radio talk show, Igor Girkin, otherwise known as Igor Strelkov, described ordering executions and installing a military court and laws based on those implemented by Stalin in 1941 to stop rampant looting during his command over the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk in 2014.

Sasha Borovik, an advisor to Mikheil Saakashvili, dismissed suggestions that the Odesa mayor’s anti-corruption movement is a de facto political party and described the mayor’s goal as limited to reforming the country and the political elite. (In Ukrainian)

From Russia, to the anti-ISIS campaign, to the BRICS, and Al Jazeera America in between, plummeting oil prices are challenging economies, politics, and security and defense capacities across the globe.